Friday, November 25, 2016

For your perfect green tea: Takenodai hike in Tanzawa, for beginners

Fall
is getting deeper. Though the maple trees in downtown are currently having
serious thought to dress-up, In Okuyama 奥山 of
Kanagawa Prefecture the trees are fast changing into winter pjs. (“Oku” means
“somewhere beyond the familiar environment. “Yama” = mountain.) Actually,
middle of November is the best time to hike for autumn leaves in Tanzawa and
Hakone. This time, I report you my recent visit around Yabitsu Pass in Tanzawa.
That was gorgeous! (… it’s snowing there now. The colors must have gone …)

Long-sleeved jackets with long pants and working gloves: i.e.
serious hiking gears,

Lunch and drinking water in a bag that does not constrain your
hands,

Towels, tissue papers, and any other personal hygiene products: when it is fine, wearing sun-screen is advisable,

Map of Tanzawa Mountain: there are many versions including with
Kindle. Of course you may print it out from whichever website, but I strongly
recommend you to bring a full-version reference (Kindle would be OK). It is common
knowledge within Japanese mountaineering community that Tanzawa is an epitome
of Japanese mountains. The place is looked like small easier hills, but in
reality all the standard dangers, including death, of mountain climbing can be
waiting for you at every turn. It is better to be fully informed,

and, a
500ml empty water bottle, well-cleaned.

First,
we have to reach to Yabitsu Pass. It’s easy. Please take Kanachu bus Hada 秦21 service (time table, here) from #4 stop of
Odakyu Hadano Station秦野. Yabitsu Pass is the terminal
stop, which takes 45 minutes to reach from the Station … er, yeah, it’s easy,
but during a high season like November weekends, you’d better prepare yourself
for a packed-bus ride at the level of JR Yamanote Line. Anyway, the bus takes
Prefectural Road #70 first to Minogue Stop, then from there climbs up really
mountainous (almost 1-lane) route. Yabitsu Pass is a kind of sacred place for
cyclists and motor bikers who love to enter into the mountain via difficult P.Road
#70. You can drive to the Pass by yourself, although the parking space is
fairly limited. In our itinerary we come down to Minogue for the return trip (with
Hada 秦20 and
21 services to Hadano Station; the time table is here).

Within
Hadano Station. They show you the way.

I told
you. It’s congested in Hadano Station ...It means there would be somebodyeven
if you had a problem in the mountain.

Could
you see a winding road down there?It’s the bus route, Prefectural Road #70.It
goes via Yabitsu Pass to Miyagase Lake宮ケ瀬湖,then
joins with P.Road #64 that will meetChuo Express Way中央高速道via
National Route #413/412at near Sagami Lake相模湖and Mt.Takao高尾山of
Tokyo.

Yabitsu
Pass has a kiosk-cum-visitor center.You can collect info about Tanzawa here.Also, please leave a hiking registrationat the booth before you start
anything.When you have a problem,the information shall be vital for rescue
operation.

The
public toilet bldg. at Yabitsu Pass.The entrance of the structure also has a
postto drop hiking registrations.

Western
style!The water supply is limited, so be careful when you flush.Also, H2O
from the faucets in the toilet is not potable.

For
our itinerary, first we climb about 1k to Takenodai from Yabitsu Pass. Oh, yes,
for you visiting there during summer, the area hosts lots of haemadipsa zeylanica japonica. We must
protect ourselves from Yabitsu Pass against those blood-suckers. (More to this
in a post next year.) The entrance to the trekking route is first on the right
when we start walking from the toilet along Route 70 to the direction we came
by bus. For a while, the road is a typical Japanese mountain way where both
sides are afforested with Japanese cedars and cypresses. Actually, the area is
designated as “Kanagawa Water Source Forests” where there are the origins of
the streams going down to Miyagase / Sagami / Tanzawa Lakes, and Sagami /
Sakawa Rivers 相模川・酒匂川. All of them are the water
sources to the cities in Kanagawa Prefecture, including Yokohama. You may
notice there runs a fence along the route to Takenodai. It is because the place
has a problem of overgrazing by wild deer. I’ll post later about this rather
serious issue in Japan. Probably due to this, the undergrowth of the area outside
the fence is mainly with Pleioblastus chino and Boenninghausenia
albifloravar.japonica … I found it a bit poor comparing with the forest floors in Niiharu …
Granted the place has a higher elevation, but the grasses we can find along the
road are disliked by deer …

To
Takenodai from Yabitsu Pass

Cedars
with deer fence

The
ground covered by Pleioblastus chino

Even
though, there appear several broad leaved trees some of which had leaves turned
yellow or red (or both). We can also find dozens of formidable Pinus desiflora near or along the ridge
way. In the lower bound world of Satoyama, they are almost gone due to
deforestation during the World War II. It’s a relief we still have this tree in
wild. Also, there are Euonymus
hamiltonianus in 5+m high, with cute pink berries and yellow leaves. For
the eyes accustomed to a garden-sized version, it’s a fresh delight. Soon we
come to a field of Miscanthus sinensis
spreading over the slopes both sides. Before, it was a place where the villagers
living on the foot of Tanzawa Mountains harvested grasses as the material for
roofthatch. We can also see many young Fagus
crenata Blume within the grasses. They are planted by several volunteer
groups to restore the ecosystem … it’s the connected thing with the deer and leeches.
I’ll tell you about this next year. After the pampas field, the road runs
almost on the ridge where both sides have several beautiful maples and other
deciduous broad leaved trees. In Kanagawa, the climax forest is of evergreen
broad leaved trees for Satoyama … we can see what difference in elevation can
do. Eventually, we reach to Takenodai. It’s one of the spots we can admire
beautiful Mt. Fuji J

Pinus desiflora

Euonymus hamiltonianus

The
field of pampas grasses

Fagus crenata Blume. The fences are against deer.

A
fallen leaf of beech.The 3D
structure of Japanese beech with veinsis not common among broad leaved trees,one of our seniors of Forest Instructor told us.

Wow

Takenodai
has an observation platform whose view is

This!
Hello, Mt. Fuji.

Actually,
for almost all the way in our itinerary,we can observe Mt. Ohyama大山to the
East.

From
Takenodai, it’s a steep slope going down. The opposite side before us is
Nino-toh 二の塔that is the beginning of Tanzawa Table Ridge丹沢表尾根. The trails from Nino-toh to the main peaks of
South Tanzawa (Sanno-toh 三の塔,
Tohnotake 塔ノ岳, Nabewariyama 鍋割山…) are
training grounds for serious mountaineers in Japan. It is said especially
during winter when the place is covered with snow, the area is ideal to learn
snow mountaineering. When we reach to the bottom of the slope, there is a small
shrine that worships the Wind God 風神.
Meaning, this small valley is a kind of wind tunnel tucked between the ridges.
From there, another small climb within the forest of maple trees will bring us to
the place where 21st century humans play with the Wind God: 2 launch
decks for paragliders. The people who jump from there will arrive at one of the
rice paddies in Hadano down there. From the decks, we can see all the Hakone Mountains
to Izu Peninsula, the eastern skirts of Mt. Fuji, Oiso Hill大磯丘陵whose
southern edge has a house of Haruki Murakami, Hadano City, and spreading
Odawara City. I found the spot is ideal to grasp the structure of Sogamae strategy総構represented
by Odawara. If you are interested in historic war plan in Japan, this is the
place you should visit once.

Nino-toh

Baby Shrine
for the Wind God :)

Fly!Could you see Mt Fuji over there?If the
Wind God is on holiday with lots of sunshine,the place is ideal for lunch.J

The
ridge in front of us is Hakone Mountains.The hill below us is Oiso Hill.Could
you figure out Odawara City between Hakone and Oiso Hill?Odawara was already
well established at least in the 10th century,but in the 15th
century it became famousas a prototype of Japanese cities with castles,whose plan
is called Sogamae.The city is surrounded by steep mountains andhills from 3
directions and the only window is the sea.It is ideal to build an enclosed
city around a castle of a warlord.Tokyo (Edo) was designed from the
example of Odawara.

From
the launch decks, it is a steep decline to Bosatsu Pass. The route is of steps
where both sides have Gentiana scabra
var. buergeri f. stenophylla. If it
is a fine fall day, they greet us with their elegant blue flowers open.
Fingers-crossed (; they do not bloom when it rains). We can also see down there
Bosatsu Pass Parking. From there to the north is Tanzawa Table Ridge hiking
route. We take this time to the east for about 500m where we meet P.Route 70.
Before returning to Yabitsu Pass to the right, let’s have a 100m detour along
Route 70 to the left. Soon we will be greeted by several cars parking on the
left. Many of their number plates are like “Omiya 大宮,” “Shinagawa 品川,” “Nerima 練馬,” …
i.e. the cars are not from Kanagawa Prefecture. The place is called Gomayashiki
Spring that is one of the water sources of Hadano City. It is also one of the Springs of Hadano Basin registered as a member of the 100 Best Water of Japan by the Ministry
of Environment. Now, have you brought your clean water bottle? Store the water
from the spring, and brew your green tea home. The water is not treated yet, of
course, and the place has a warning from Hadano City, “Please boil the water
before drinking.” Still, I guarantee your cup will have very soft, even sweet
taste. It would be one of the best cups of green tea you’ve ever tasted ;)

Gentiana scabra var. buergeri f. stenophylla

Bosatsu
Pass parking

To
Tanzawa Table Ridge

At the
corner with P.Route 70 from Bosatsu Pass,there is a structure for public
toilet.

To the
left, the entrance of Gomayashiki Spring.You can park your car only on the
left of P.Route 70to Miyagase Lake direction.

The
Spring has 2 spotswhere we can collect the water.Please do not be greedy.Bringing a tank lorry is No-No-No(… I think it’s illegal if you do that).

From
the Spring, we take Route 70 to Yabitsu Pass for about 30 min and turn left
after passing the Yabitsu Pass Bus Terminal. It’s the entrance to Kashiwagi
Trail going down to Minogue town. The road was built as “Kinma-michi” 木馬道in
1932 for the transportation of logs harvested along the way, so that it is a relatively
new route. “Kinma” means wooden sledge pulled by human power on make-shift log
rails. Japanese forestry in very steep mountains employed the method traditionally
to carry the logs to the nearest stream, and let the product to swim down to a town.
Kashiwagi Trail looks like a standard mountain road with 1m width at best. It
is difficult to imagine people carried tons of logs on such road. The surface
is graveled, probably intentionally in order to control the speed of the sledge.
Moreover, the valley side of the route is almost 30º of
steepness … It must have been a very dangerous job … I recalled my “Reducing
BMI Exercises in Niiharu.” Ah-ha. The route was used until the 1980s, which
implies how “remote” the Tanzawa Mountains were for city folks.

Looking
P.Route 70 fromKashiwagi Trail entrance

The
entire surface of Kashiwagi Trailis like this.

Of
course, lots of cedars and cypresses both sides.

And the
beyond is supreme …

Eventually, we meet Shungoku Sawa 春獄沢that is baby Kaname River 金目川reaching to the Hadano Station. The point is one of the sluice gates for Hadano City. From here, the route becomes a black top road with lesser inclination where vehicles could come in. We also find strangely flat spaces along the stream. Until 1923, Motojuku Village 本宿村was there. Especially from the 17th century till 1945, Tanzawa and Hakone were the property of national powers, first of the Shogunate Government, and later of the Imperial Family. Harvesting anything from the forest without the permission of the Great was prohibited inevitably. The people who had a secluded community deep inside received special permissions to cultivate and hunt the forest bounty. Then, the Great Kanto Earthquake hit with the epicenter in Sagami Bay nearby. The entire Motojuku Village was swallowed by debris-avalanches and majority of the villagers died. The survivors moved to Minogue. The land along the Kaname River became human-less. It seems to me the families still hold the title of ancestral land though, as some BBQ business appears here and there. Soon, we pass Sengen-in Temple 千元院, and going down straight for about 100m we see the Minogue Bus Stop along P.Route 70. At the corner of Kashiwagi Trail and Route 70, there is a statue of Boy Scout with an inscription saying “The birth place of Tokyo Camping Club of Boys.” OK, OK.

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About Me

My
family moved to Yokohama from Tokyo before I became 3 years old. Since then,
Yokohama is my home town. (Though, I cannot be Hamakko since I was born in Tokyo ... Hey, this is Japan!) I have watched my playground is changing always. I
hope you find Yokohama interesting place. With love, Naomi